Tuesday, February 13, 2018

I'm still doing this Ironman

A little over 10 weeks to IM Texas, my first (and only)
Ironman. I do truly believe I am one and done. With this statement you
might think I’m hating everything about this ‘journey’ (blargh I just threw up
in my mouth a bit) but I’m actually not. There is something to be said for
having a plan and trying to (mostly) go full force in and do what it calls for,
even when a lot of it stretches all of your boundaries. If it weren’t for the
other ladies, particularly Carrie, there wouldn’t be any way I would be getting
all this done. Especially since Mother Nature has been giving us everything she’s
got ranging from snow to uber-cold to all weekend rain. There have been many
trainer rides, and yeah, I realize we signed up for an early season race but
our winters in the south are just not usually that bad.

I’ve been setting all sorts of PRs: longest trainer ride
(4.5hrs), longest run (15 miles), longest outdoor ride (80 miles) and maybe
longest swim? (3.9K) That one I’m actually not sure of, but at least longest
swim in the past 7 years. All of those, except the trainer ride, are very soon
to be eclipsed again (I mean for gods sakes let’s hope that trainer PR doesn’t
get any longer). We did get through the whole season of Ozark as well as other
movies and shows.

It’s weird to even begin to explain to other people what I’m
training for – obviously people outside the triathlon world. They think I’m
straight up crazy, which in all actuality, this endeavor is. Without the full
support of Marty, there’s no way I could get all this training in. I literally
feel like my world is slightly askew, trying to fit the workouts in. Someone at
work asked how long it takes to train for an Ironman and I literally didn’t
have an answer for them. I mean, I did my first triathlon when I was 8, so I
guess for me 30 years? But some people can do it in 6 months :P

With 10 weeks to go we haven’t even hit the BIG stuff yet,
and that definitely scares me. Sometimes I feel like I’m hanging on by a thread
and things will come crumbling down any second. Since the beginning of the year
I’ve been sick twice, had some calf strain scares and what is probably a
neuroma in my foot. Many days, I’m just hoping I make it to the starting line
as doing that seems like a win. And for the record, I’m not trying for a Kona
slot, I’m not interested in a Kona slot, and if a miracle happened and I
somehow got one (people, 4th place in my age group last year was 10
flat. That is sick fast and I’ve never even run a marathon before) I can’t even
imagine taking it.

One day at a time, one foot in front of another, one stroke blah de blah blah -- you get the point.